Once A Victim Of Domestic Abuse, Shanoo Begum Is Now An Uber Driver

IWB Post

May 17, 2018

There’s an old saying that bridges everything that comes between us and our dreams, which goes, “Where there’s a will, there is a way.” Undoubtedly, this stands true and Delhi-based Shanoo Begum’s life is an example. Leaving behind her abusive and painful life, Shanoo has embarked on a new journey by becoming an Uber driver.

A mother of three children, 40-year-old Shanoo was physically abused every day by her husband until one day when she lost the tolerance to bear with it anymore. Her husband used a grinding stone to harm her but in retaliation, she slapped him and then fainted from excessive bleeding.

Her husband died three years post this incident and life has not been same ever since. Shanoo now single-handedly had to take care of all of her three children. After her daughter saw an advertisement, she insisted Shanoo to enroll herself in the programme conducted by Azad Foundation, which was calling out for those who have completed Class XII to join a six-month-long driving course. But there was a problem. Shanoo did not have her marksheets ready.

She then rewrote her Class X exam and two years later she cleared it. Thereafter she applied for a commercial license and joined Sakha, one of the early women-only cab services in Delhi. The result of her grit and determination – she is now the first woman Uber driver from Delhi!

Talking about the odds of being a female driver, as quoted by Your Story, she says, “Most often men on the road feel the need to race with a woman driver to show their supposed superiority.”

Her message to other women, “Stay strong and chase your goal with as much passion as you would like. Women are no less than men.”

She does feel women don’t get as much respect as they deserve and according to her this is the biggest loophole in the country.